St. Luke’s Archives!

Sermon:  St. Luke’s / Prescott

The Rev. Mark Moline

Sunday December 6^th & 13^th, 2009

Title:  “Our Love Confirms the Gospel”

Part 1 (12/6)

In today’s second reading we find St. Paul about as warm and cuddly as Paul could possibly be.  In fact, he had many loving friends in the Church at Philippi who personally held him in very high regard.  They loved him and he loved them.   So following the salutation, he wrote in this letter to them, “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you.  And this is my prayer that your love may overflow.  You hold me in your hearts and I hold you in my heart.  For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.”

Paul knew what it takes to make a great congregation.  He knew they were a great church there at Philippi because they honored Christ’s great commandments to love God and love one another.  They even loved Paul.  The sometimes difficult-to-love Paul who actually was no stranger to love and wrote to the church at Corinth, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all knowledge, and I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing!  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  Love, Paul writes, does not insist on its own way. Read the rest of this entry »

The Rev. Mark Moline
Sunday July 26th, 2009  
Title:  “The Time of Your Life”

In my sermon just a few weeks back, I quoted Christ from the 5th chapter of John’s Gospel, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.”  I am confident that even as a young boy, Jesus saw God miraculously turning water into wine, so he  – in turn – launched his earthly ministry by doing the same at that wedding in Cana of Galilee.  As a teenager, even I saw God performing that very same miracle – with my own eyes.  And before you begin to think I’m losing my mind, let me explain that at that time I was living in Linden, California and from our house – on a clear day – I could see the snow on the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and then during the spring/summer thaw I saw that water gushing down off those mountains and pushing back the banks of the diverting canals that criss-crossed the central valley.  I saw the growers around Lodi irrigating their vineyards with that water.  Then I saw, and even worked in the harvest as we cut ripe grapes bursting with juice; water on its way to becoming wine.  Then later as I would pass the wineries, I could smell the water-turned-grape-juice turning into wine.  Ventnor’s don’t manufacture wine.  Like the servants at the wedding they assist God.  Mary told the wedding servants “Do whatever he tells you.”  She knew more than others that God provides the creation, the power and the time; God does all the work. Read the rest of this entry »

Sermon / The Rev. Mark Moline
Memorial Day 2009
St. Luke’s / Prescott

On this Memorial Day I’m going to use another preacher’s sermon; almost verbatim although I have paraphrased some in the interest of time.  Still it is the same sermon and this is Memorial Day week-end and the sermon seems to fit. 

 This sermon was written by the Rev. Leonard E. Welshons, Pastor of the Open Bible Church in Ottumwa and was presented only once, 65 years ago.  It was preached at the memorial service of Judy’s older brother Paul. 

 I know you didn’t know Paul, neither did I and neither did Judy beyond that cold granite stone that bore his name there at the cemetery in Ottumwa; the one her parents frequently took her to visit on Sunday afternoons when she was a little girl.

 You don’t know Paul, but on this Memorial Day Week-end you do know of and remember other Paul’s, or perhaps it was a James, or a Mike or a Donald, other brothers, other uncles or even dads or a spouse; and maybe even a Susan or a Mary for there were 460 American Military women killed in WW2 alone.  It is my hope that, as I preach Pastor Welshons’ sermon you will remember all of those who paid the ultimate price in defense of our nation, our way of life, our freedom. Read the rest of this entry »